Azazel
Azazel is a new unlockable character in The Binding of Isaac Rebirth. He is unlocked when the player makes three deals with the devil in a single playthrough. His face resembles Isaac's, however his body is almost black, in addition to the fact that he has red eyes, horns and black wings like the wings given by Lord Of The Pit, he looks quite demonic. These facts hint that he might be a combination of some demons and Isaac, instead of a dressed Isaac that many other characters resembles. Also, he has black hairs while Isaac is actually bald. Notice that one of his horns is somehow broken. Azazel starts with a short range version of Brimstone (It is not an item, therefore cannot be rerolled by C4), three Black Hearts, 0 - The Fool, and the ability to fly (Looks similar to Lord Of The Pit but it is also not an item), but has no heart containers; unlike ???. He can still obtain regular heart containers though. Although Azazel`s range state is shown normally, he actually suffers from the shortest basic range of all characters; this is balanced with flight, additional power per hit via their Brimstone-like attack, and significant damage to all enemies in the room upon the loss of a Black Heart, killing most lesser enemies. Similar to other characters with regular permanent flight, Azazel can fly over pits, rocks, spikes and creeps. He can also ignore the slow effect of Cobweb; he cannot fly over enemies, sacrifice spikes or Red poops. Due to his short "basic" range, Azazel receives much less effect from range up/down items and pills. Approximately 20 Range Up Pills are needed if players want to increase his range to other characters', while the cosmetic range of his Brimstone beam only shorten for less than 1/6 if he picks up Number One. Strategies Unlocking The easiest way to unlock Azazel is to use Judas, since Judas has Book Of Belial, which guarantees finding a Devil Room or Angel Room after fighting a boss in Rebirth, instead of just increasing the possibility for 25%. However, the low basic health of Judas may increase the risk of dealing with the devil for 3 times in a single run, and there also exist the possibility of spawning Angel Room for too many times. Besides this, you can only unlock Judas by beating Satan, therefore, if the player manage to unlock Azazel before that, he must try not to take any Red heart damage in any floors so as to find the Devil Room for more times. General * Azazel gains permanent flight in the very beginning of game; therefore, he is able to possess some Pick Ups or even Chests hidden before rocks, which is quite hard for other characters to reach in early levels. In later levels flight is still useful, since environmental hazards like Spikes are more common,and various enemies may summon creeps. This is one of the natural advantage of Azazel comparing to other characters. * He also has the highest base speed, same as Eve and Cain. However, due to his ability to fly this advantage seems to be more beneficial comparing to these two characters. * Another advantage of him, however, is also his worst disadvantage: his short-ranged Brimstone attack. Combining his high base attack (3),he is able to deal severe damage to enemies, especially those which are big-sized——including most of bosses. Brimstone is an area-of-effect attack so he can also destroy some enemies which may summon lesser enemies upon death, or multi-phase enemies like Globin in one shot. * Unlike the original game, the charging time of Azazel`s Brimstone is affected by Tears stat, so Tears Up items are handy for him. * Nevertheless, he might be troubled by multiple projectiles, or small, fast enemies, especially those moving erratically, such as Spiders. He is also not good at dealing with self-exploding enemies, e.g.Mullibooms. Worse, he can't effectively overcome this by swallowing Range Up pills or gaining other range up items. * Like the original Brimstone, he also have to charge for several seconds before he shoots, which makes it harder to fight with melee enemies. * In order to evade his shortcoming, it is suggested for players to stand on rocks, pits or other environmental obstacles that can help Azazel to charge his Brimstone and shoot at enemies without taking damage from melee enemies, or dodge projectiles easier. * If you can't find suitable shelter, it is better to use your high speed and flight to dodge incoming attack by moving wisely through current room while holding the arrow keys, charging his Brimstone. In some occasions, Azazel can use spikes as his advantage,since he won`t take any damage from them while non-flight enemies would try to evade. * Azazel has no heart containers in the beginning, but he is able to have them. Due to the fact that black hearts are depleted upon taking damage, getting health-up items might be quite significant for him. Ironically, though Azazel has the appearance of a devil, it is suggested to evade dealing with the devil since there are more items providing health-up or protection in Angel rooms. * On top of that, Soul Hearts are also important, because they not only increase his durability, but fulfill a half black heart when picked as well. Keep an eye for Tinted Rocks and save bombs for them. * His starting pick-up, 0 - The Fool, has little use and you may end up leaving it on the floor in order to pick up other Tarots or pills. However, if you get stuck in glitched occasions (very rare in Rebirth), or want to leave the current room with enemies in it so as to gain more supply, it may become useful. * he also won't get hurt while getting in a room with a cursed door. however, he will still hurt himself on the way out. Items * Because of his Brimstone-type attack, items that synergize with Brimstone can also synergize his attack, with the exception of Spoon Bender and other homing effects——the range of his Brimstone is too short for homing effects to target enemies. However, if combined with some other items, homing effects may become extremely handy. Therefore, finding items that have good synergies with Brimstone is a fairly good strategy when using Azazel. Best Items * The Ludovico Technique——An game-breaking item for Azazel. The Ludovico Technique provides him exactly the same "Beam-ring" as other characters may have by getting both Brimstone and Ludovico, but Azazel doesn't have to collect Brimstone, which is a very rare item that only exists in the Devil Room item pool. Besides this, Ludovico completely overcomes his terrible range, while his permanent flight and high moving speed give him more safety when controlling the beam-ring. * Tammy's Head——The second useful item for Azazel, though a little less imbalance comparing to The Ludovico Technique. Upon activation, 10 short-range Brimstone would be released in a radial pattern,create a circle of death around Azazel. It is less powerful than the "original" Brimstone-Tammy`s head combination, but as mentioned above, Azazel doesn't need to gain Brimstone at all. Also, his permanent flight gives him more chance to get close to enemies in order to let more than one beam hit the enemies. On top of that, Azazel lacks the ability to combat with massive small-sized, fast-speed enemies like spiders, and Tammy's head gives him more advantages. * Brimstone——Albeit Azazel has his own Brimstone, ordinary Brimstone is still very handy for him because its range is infinite. This means in more occasions he is able to fly onto a rock or pit, charge his attack safely and use the brimstone beam to clear half a room of enemies. After a certain amount of time, this Brimstone effect may be removed, leaving Azazel with his short-range Brimstone-effect (needs confirmation). * Tiny Planet——When Azazel releases his beam, a ring of beam is formed around himself and last for about two seconds, dealing the same damage as regular beam.Comparing to Tammy`s head, the area-of-effect of Tiny Planet is smaller but it can be used for many times in a single room. * Mom's Wig——5 blue spiders are almsot instantly spawned when Azazel charges his attack (each frame during his charging may trigger Mom's Wig effect). These spiders can protect Azazel when he is too close to melee enemies. Besides, each blue fly deals 2.5 times of the character`s basic tear damage, and Azazel has the highest basic damage in game. Good Items * Defensive Items, such as Trinity Shield, Book of Shadows and Halo Of Flies ——Azazel suffers from his short range, and frequently has trouble fighting enemies with massive projectiles like Mega Satan.Therefore, items that block projectiles are very beneficial to him. The Soul seem to be the best one, but it is very rare and hard to unlock. * Necronomicon, XIII - Death, XIX - The sun,Magic Fingers——While a big-size room (1x2 or 2x2) is found, Azazel may have to waste time and even risk taking much damage to clean it up. These items deal some damage to all enemies in the current room, which can help Azazel to clean a big room in a few seconds. * Health-up Items, including items providing Soul hearts or Black hearts——Azazel need to gain these items because his method of fighting is more risky than other characters. * Speed-up Items——The same reason as above, albeit higher speed means the player must to control Azazel carefully not to crash into enemies. * Tears-up Items——Decreases the charging time of Azazel`s beam, also decreases the potential risk. * Mom's Bra and Hourglass——The former freeze all enemies in the room, while the latter slow down them together with their projectiles.Both are specially useful to Azazel comparing to other characters. Stop Watch is an even better version of Hourglass but it is hard to either unlock or obtain. * Items that have a chance to be triggered every hit, especially Abaddon——Brimstone beam hits enemies much more times per second than regular tears, providing a higher possibility of triggering. Abaddon is even more useful since it gives Azazel extra damage and black hearts. * Technology 2 ---- This is item is useful for Azazel as the beam it can be fired consistently while charging Azazel's Brimstone attack. *Loki's Horns and Mom's Contacts fire brimstone beams rather than regular tears. This item can be good for the cautious player wishing for some control on killing melee monsters. Controversial Items * Mutant Spider, Inner Eye and Polyphemus——These items make the charging time of Azazel's Brimstone much longer, which means risk being damaged (sometimes even repeatedly) by lesser enemies. However, they greatly increase the damage of Brimstone, making battle with bosses much easier. Since the major problem Azazel would face in most runs is massive lesser enemies rather than huge, tanky enemies, these items are not very suggested. * Number One——The negative effect of Number one on Azazel is not so obvious as on other characters, however it makes close combat even more dangerous to him. Whether the benefit of decreased charging time outweighs this depends on the skills of players. * Soy Milk——Similar to Number One, both the damage and the charging time are reduced. Trivia * In most Abrahamic religions, Azazel is referred to as a fallen angel. Azazel is referenced three times in the Hebrew Bible; this may be why they spawn with three Black Hearts. * Their appearance may also be a slight reference to the villain of the Dungeons & Dragons cartoon Venger. Both are missing their right horn and with the other D&D references it would seem to go along with it. * Azazel greatly resembles a character from the Fifth Cell game franchise "Drawn to Life" called Wilfre, who is the main antagonist of the franchise Category:The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth Category:Character